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Per Governor Newsom's recommendations concerning social distancing in regards to the Coronavirus outbreak, the Adventures with Nature docent-led hikes have been cancelled until further notice.

Though our in-person events have been postponed, Central Coast State Parks docents and staff are still offering engaging and educational programs virtually. Please visit their YouTube Channels by clicking on the above images.

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Per Governor Newsom's recommendations concerning social distancing in regards to the Coronavirus outbreak, the Adventures with Nature docent-led hikes have been cancelled until further notice. Though our in-person events have been postponed, Central Coast State Parks docents and staff are still offering engaging and educational programs virtually.

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In response to the COVID-19 disruption in school instruction, PORTS is offering both our new PORTS Home Learning Programs and our PORTS On-Demand Programs to students learning in virtual classrooms.

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Every Kid in the Park FREE passes for 4th Graders

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Every Kid in the Park FREE passes for 4th Graders

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As a fourth-grade educator, you can download an activity and print paper passes for each of your students. This program only provides passes for fourth graders.

You're a fourth-grade educator if:

You're a teacher at a U.S. or U.S. military school, or

You're an adult who engages fourth graders through a youth-serving organization. For example, a camp director, a home-school leader, an after-school leader, or a religious group leader.

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Every Kid in a Park | Get your pass - educators

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You're a teacher at a U.S. or U.S. military school, or You're an adult who engages fourth graders through a youth-serving organization. For example, a camp director, a home-school leader, an after-school leader, or a religious group leader.

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"veterinary videos" veterinarian video series channel farm animals pets "animal health" "animal medicine" "vets on call" animal welfare care farming farms jobs reality show tv vet veterinarians veterinarians on call vets science zoetis animal health doctor livestock "commitment to veterinarians"

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Veterinarians On Call promotes the veterinary profession by featuring vets on the job and their clients across the U.S. All vets and their clients who appear...

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"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Elli holding the logo for the Tule Oaks Land trust.

Elli with the Circle J-Norris Ranch branding iron.

"As we take care of the land, the land takes care of us." - - Canadian First Nations

Photos for this article by: John Greening, Laurie Schwaller, SCICON Staff; Historic Photos courtesy of Elli Norris

History:

A Dream Come True: The
by Eleanor Norris Story of the Circle J-Norris Ranch

T he Circle J-Norris Ranch lies in the foothills of the Southern Sierra Nevada, 25 miles northeast of Porterville and seven miles north of Springville. Its 620 acres of rolling oak woodland was owned and ranched by one family, the Marion and Julia Gill Andersons and their offspring, for nearly eighty years. But in 1997, while still home to cattle, the ranch began to serve also as an outdoor classroom for children of all grade levels to study the amazing workings of the natural world they find there. This is the story of how that came to be.

I t all began with a dream - a dream I shared with my mother - that the Circle J would remain as open space, and never be broken up into many parcels with big houses, instead of cattle and wildlife, dotting its hills. I had no idea how the ranch could be preserved, but when my mother, Cora Norris, died in 1991, and left the ranch to me, I began to learn how to turn our dream into reality.

That challenge led me to draw together a group of people to help create a land trust so that I could place legal restrictions on how the land could be used, now and "in perpetuity." It took well over a year, but with the help of many friends and a few experts, we at last got our Tule Oaks Land Trust established as an official non-profit organization, and I got a conservation easement placed on the ranch, specifying that it could be used only for conservation, cattle ranching, or education. (Later, our Tule Oaks Land Trust merged with two other Tulare County land trusts to become the Sequoia Riverlands Trust, which stewards a number of preserves and other properties today in and beyond Tulare County.)

W hile I was thinking about how the ranch should be used, SCICON came to mind, the Clemmie Gill School of Science and Conservation. Since it began, in the 1960s, SCICON has provided all Tulare County sixth-graders with a week of outdoor education on its residential campus, located just six miles from the Circle J. The campus's original 35 acres were a gift to SCICON from my great-aunt Clemmie Anderson Gill.

That led me, in 1992, to ask Jim Vidak, Tulare County Superintendent of Schools, "Do you need any more land for outdoor education?" "Yes!" said Jim immediately. They wanted to expand SCICON to include a day-use program for all grade levels. Soon we began meeting in my living room, with school teachers and administrators, dreaming into being the new life for the ranch.

I explained that I loved the land, it was part of my family, and I wanted to keep it in open space. We walked over the ranch and saw it as a place where kids could come and experience being in the open, where many have never been -- in the foothills, studying the oaks and the wildflowers, the streams and the pond, the wild creatures, and the long story of human use of that land.

In 1997, this exciting educational endeavor got underway, with first graders from Springville as our first students. Dedication to outdoor education for young people must run in my family!

I n 2004, with the outdoor education program growing steadily, I sold the ranch to the Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE). TCOE
manages the ranch as a second campus of SCICON, available for children of all grades, from pre-school through high school and into college, who come by bus for day use or, occasionally, for special weekend studies. With 600 acres protected under permanent conservation easements, cattle continue to graze there, as they have for close to 100 years. And so, my dream has come true.

In closing, I want to tell you the story of how the Circle J-Norris Ranch got its name. When I was getting near to reaching my goal of protecting the ranch as open space, I wanted to give it a name that would honor both sides of my family. My Grandpa and Grandma, Marion and Julia Anderson, first owned the land, and their cattle were all branded with the Circle J.

The Circle J-brand was on cattle that belonged to Grandpa Anderson's mother, Martha McDaniel Graham, and her first husband, John Graham, when they came across the plains in a cattle drive from Texas to California n 1859. They settled near Farmersville, but in 1866, John died from pneumonia. So it was Martha's second husband, Garland Anderson, who registered the Circle J brand in Tulare County in the Anderson name in 1868.
Martha and Garland Anderson were my great-grandparents. All four of their children, including my grandpa, Marion, were born in the old Anderson homestead in Yokohl Valley (where the family had moved to escape the wet flatlands of the Central Valley floor). Many years later, my mother, Cora Anderson, was born there, too.

In the 1920s, my grandparents bought the land that I have named the Circle J-Norris Ranch. It was deeded to my grandmother, Julia Gill Anderson, in 1927. My grandparents,who made their year-round home in Porterville, ranched it, and they spent a few weeks there every summer, out of the valley heat. Then, in the late 1940s, my family moved to the ranch, and it was my dad, Norman Norris, and my mother, Cora Anderson Norris, who kept the place going for so long, until it came to me. So there you have it, the story of how the Circle J-Norris Ranch got its name.

October, 2012

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"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer Elli holding the logo for the Tule Oaks Land trust. Elli with the Circle J-Norris Ranch branding iron. "As we take care of the land, the land takes care of us."

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SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR LATEST NEWS & EVENTS

Sequoia Riverlands Trust is a regional nonprofit land trust dedicated to strengthening California's heartland and the natural and agricultural legacy of the southern Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin Valley. The wealth, productivity and beauty of this land inspire our work to conserve it for future generations.

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SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR LATEST NEWS & EVENTS Sequoia Riverlands Trust is a regional nonprofit land trust dedicated to strengthening California's heartland and the natural and agricultural legacy of the southern Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin Valley. The wealth, productivity and beauty of this land inspire our work to conserve it for future generations.

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On September 16, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a three-bill legislative package, composed of AB 1739 (Dickinson), SB 1168 (Pavley), and SB 1319 (Pavley), collectively known as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). For the first time in its history, California has a framework for sustainable, groundwater management - "management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without causing undesirable results."

SGMA requires governments and water agencies of high and medium priority basins to halt overdraft and bring groundwater basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge. Under SGMA, these basins should reach sustainability within 20 years of implementing their sustainability plans. For critically over-drafted basins, that will be 2040. For the remaining high and medium priority basins, 2042 is the deadline.

In his signing statement, the governor emphasized that "groundwater management in California is best accomplished locally." Through the Sustainable Groundwater Management Program, DWR provides ongoing support to local agencies through guidance and financial and technical assistance.

SGMA empowers local agencies to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to manage basins sustainably and requires those GSAs to adopt Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) for crucial groundwater basins in California.

Sign up to receive monthly Sustainable Groundwater Management program updates.

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In 2014, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed three bills known collectively as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) . For the first time in its history, California had a framework for sustainable, groundwater management - "management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without causing undesirable results."

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Environmental Impact Reports- Tulare County

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Environmental Impact Reports- Tulare County

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This page includes Draft and Final EIRs including all associated environmental documents. The documents are sorted by most recent content uploaded.

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This resource was created to provide resources to teachers in the transition to NGSS. This resource bank continues to grow and evolve on a daily basis.

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Scroll to the right for additional resources! 

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Scroll to the right for additional resources! 

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Scroll to the side to see more columns.  Scroll down to view more resources in a column.

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S.M.A.R.T. LAB CAMPS | Porterville College

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All campers should enter from Plano to the shady area west of the baseball field each morning by 8:00 a.m. Parents/Guardian must sign their student in at drop-off. Do not drop your child off without signing them in. We cannot supervise your child before 8:00 a.m.

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AgVentures! Learning Center is a place where ag is more than just fields and farmers-it's you and me, and the food we eat (and the clothes we wear)! Our museum features multiple displays with interactive, hands-on activities for visitors of all ages.

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You can tour the dairy where the milk is produced. You can watch the milk going into the bottle at the creamery. You know exactly where every bottle comes from. Our milk is never "pooled" with other farms, requiring additional processing to make the milk uniform. Rest assured we do not use rBST (bovine growth hormone) to treat our cows. Our attention to detail on the farm and at the creamery results in a better-tasting, longer-lasting milk in your refrigerator. And we're committed to producing only the highest quality products. That means only the best ingredients go into our products - like real cane sugar!

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Rosa Brothers Farm Tours - Rosa Brothers Farm and Dairy

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You can tour the dairy where the milk is produced. You can watch the milk going into the bottle at the creamery. You know exactly where every bottle comes from. Our milk is never "pooled" with other farms, requiring additional processing to make the milk uniform.

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Mobile Dairy Classroom: Free School Assembly on Cows, Milk, Agriculture

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HealthyEating.org from Dairy Council of California offers print, interactive and turnkey resources that teach and inspire healthy eating from the five food groups.

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Click on the thumbnail to see what is available.

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Virtual Guest Speakers

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Skype a Scientist matches your classroom, scout troop, or library with scientists for Q&A sessions for free!

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See workshops listed by NGSS standard (CLICK LINK) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HZx6N1rPl1qaE9DfWQLQgGEhF1EKqxsiW846b1Cd8sw/edit?usp=sharing
Visit website and make reservations by clicking thumbnail.

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Rangers in the Classroom - Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (U.S. National Park Service)

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We offer a variety of curriculum-based program opportunities that combine the California science standards with the natural and cultural resources found in the parks. Learn more about our classroom programs by exploring the links below. Programs are offered from October through April. Each session is one hour long and takes place in your classroom.

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Preparing the next generation of STEM leaders

ONLINE APPLICATIONS WILL BE AVAILABLE: JANUARY 11TH, 2023 8:00 AM
DEADLINE FOR ALL APPLICATION MATERIAL: FEBRUARY 10TH, 2023 11:59 PM

COSMOS is limited to high-school students who either attend a California high school or are residents of California.

All accepted students must show proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test 72 hours or less before arrival.

** COSMOS is planning for a fully residential and in-person 2023 program. In case directives from public health and university officials prevent the residential, in-person activities from happening, COSMOS will then update applicants with their options. These options may include being considered for a remote instruction version of COSMOS with appropriately reduced tuition or withdrawing their application. Some planned clusters may not be suitable for remote instruction, and COSMOS will, for such clusters, attempt to identify alternatives. All tuition payments by admitted students will be fully refunded if the program is canceled or if an admitted student does not accept a remote instruction alternative. It is reemphasized that COSMOS intends to be a residential program. **

COSMOS is an intensive four-week summer residential program for students who have demonstrated an aptitude for academic and professional careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. Talented and motivated students completing grades 8-12 have the opportunity to work with renowned faculty, researchers, and scientists in state-of-the-art facilities while exploring advanced STEM topics far beyond the courses usually offered in California high schools. Through challenging curricula that are both hands-on and lab-intensive, COSMOS fosters its students' interests, skills, and awareness of educational and career options in STEM fields.

Students apply to one of the four University of California's COSMOS campuses - UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Cruz. While each campus employs the best practices in STEM education, the curriculum of each program builds on the unique teaching and research expertise of its faculty and host campus. Each campus can only accommodate about 160-200 participants. The selection is competitive. A typical COSMOS student has a GPA of 3.5 or above. In addition, students must have achieved academic excellence.

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The mission of COSMOS is to motivate the most creative minds of the new generation of prospective scientists, engineers and mathematicians who will become leaders for California, the nation, and the world. The program aims to create a community of students who participate in and contribute to an intensive academic experience delivered by distinguished educators and scholars.

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Scroll to bottom for monthly offerings links